Dear eNews reader,

What are world leaders doing to overcome the economical crisis?
In this March edition of the eNews you find more information on this topic. Further we are happy to introduce our new office in Brazil as well as our new sales partner in Greece. And last but not least, Scia Steel 2009 will be released at the end of March presenting lots of new functionalities.

Enjoy reading!

• Infrastructure investments in the whole world
• New representative office in Brazil and a new sales Partner in Greece
• Nemetschek Scia introduces Scia Steel 2009
• 'Free Form Modeller' in Scia Engineer

Infrastructure investments in the whole world

Nearly all world leaders are taking identical decisions based on the Keynes theory: governments must give priority to public investments in infrastructure works. The announced figures seem impressive: USA 800 billion US$ (7% of GNP), China 427 billion € (16% of GNP for 2009-2010), European Union 200 billion € (1,5% of GNP). Figures by RREEF Research (Deutsche Bank) indicate that the total value of infrastructure in the world today is around 20.500 billion $; this shows that the extra announced investments practically double the normal annual investments (corresponding with 5% or 1.000 billion $ depreciation).

The word “infrastructure” is interpreted in different ways: in the USA it concerns renovation of bridges, roads, public buildings and a new ICT backbone. In Europe it concerns primary infrastructure on energy (electricity, gas …) and is related to the 20/20/20 goals. Improving transport facilities is also targeted (maritime, air & road) with new airports, harbours and bridges.

Who will benefit from the world investment surge in infrastructure? In principle all parts of the chain should profit, from raw material suppliers over contractors and engineering consultants up to software companies. The shift to private-public-projects (with design-build-maintain-finance formulae) gives an extra dimension to the required IT tools. Since the early design phase takes a great responsibilityin the final cost of any infrastructure; the availability of performant design software is a must.

Nemetschek Scia has a strong offer for structural consultants: Scia Engineer.
Worldwide infrastructure projects are being designed with Scia Engineer. Many examples are assembled in the User Contest Book; the 2009 edition is in final stage of redaction. Just like in the 2007 edition, excellent infrastructure design projects take part in it.

New representative office in Brazil and a new sales Partner in Greece

Nemetschek Scia has opened on 1st March ‘09 a representative office in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The Scia responsible business manager José Teixeira comments: “Brazil is one of the strongest emerging markets in the world; on the long-term Brazil has many interesting assets: it is an energy supplier in the region (gas, oil, alternative energy), the industrialisation of the country is ongoing, it is attractive for property investments and others”. The current economical crisis is – like everywhere – a temporary restraint yet also a challenge to overcome.

Mr. José Teixeira	Scia office in Sao Paulo	Scia office in Sao Paulo	Mr. Theodoris Tsirozidis

Scia is focusing on dedicated market segments, introducing its high-end structural BIM design and fabrication software.
Through its office, Scia will give support to its client base and set up its business through partners and direct sales.

Also last month Nemetschek Scia welcomed a new sales partner in the Greek market. Mr.Theodoris Tsirozidis from the company TechScience will be representing Scia locally and we wish him a lot of success in business. (www.techscience.gr)

Nemetschek Scia introduces Scia Steel 2009

'Free Form Modeller' in Scia Engineer

Thanks to the “Free Form Modeller” tool, it is possible to create in Scia Engineer almost any arbitrary form as a general solid (3D shape), and to adapt it afterwards.

More specifically there are two possibilities for the creation of general solids:

1. Import from DWG, DXF, IFC and VRML files. In this case no supplementary license is needed.
2. Entire modelling in Scia Engineer. The ‘basic’ module for this functionality is esa.27, by which basic solids can be created by extrusion or rotation of defined shapes. As extension you need module esa.24, which makes Free Form Modelling possible. The options for the input of solids can be found in the Structure menu, section Modelling/Drawing (image 1).

After the basic solids have been created, they can be adapted further on by means of 3D Boolean operations such as addition, subtraction, intersection and division of solids. These options can be found in the Structure menu, section Transfer/Break/Unify.

To be able to take the general solids into account for calculation, they need to be converted into 1D and/or 2D structure elements (module esa.26).

Two possibilities for this conversion:

1. automatic conversion, at which the program decides itself on the type of element (1D or 2D) that has to be created from a particular general solid.
2. the process can be controlled step by step. On the one hand, the user determines himself which solids have to be converted into beams, or on the other hand into plates or shells.

image 1	image 2	image 3

The conversion options can be found in the Structure menu, section Transfer/Break/Unify.
These options contain different built in recognition algorithms.

Conversion examples

• General solid into beam/column (image 2)
• General solid into plate/wall (image 3)

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